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    Stop your Dependence on Addictive Drugs
    Stop your Dependence on Addictive Drugs
    Stop your Dependence on Addictive Drugs
    Ebook103 pages2 hours

    Stop your Dependence on Addictive Drugs

    By Desmond Gahan

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    About this ebook

    What Is drug addiction?

    Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a "relapsing" disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drug.

    It's common for a person to relapse, but relapse doesn't mean that treatment doesn’t work. As with other chronic health conditions, treatment should be ongoing and should be adjusted based on how the patient responds. Treatment plans need to be reviewed often and modified to fit the patient’s changing needs.

    Long-term use also causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits as well, affecting functions that include:

    • learning
    • judgment
    • decision-making
    • stress
    • memory
    • behavior

    Despite being aware of these harmful outcomes, many people who use drugs continue to take them, which is the nature of addiction.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDesmond Gahan
    Release dateMay 24, 2017
    ISBN9781386382591
    Stop your Dependence on Addictive Drugs
    Author

    Desmond Gahan

    Desmond Gahan BA., (Dip. Applied Psychology) is the author and publisher of many non fiction books. His special area is psychology and psychopathology. He lives in Dublin Ireland.

    Read more from Desmond Gahan

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      Book preview

      Stop your Dependence on Addictive Drugs - Desmond Gahan

      WHY PEOPLE USE DRUGS

      The reasons people use drugs are varied.  Essentially, though, drugs give us a desired effect producing a feeling of euphoria that makes us feel better – at least temporarily.  There are hundreds of ways that drugs help people cope with life and each person has their own reason why they choose a certain drug.

      Drugs can help calm you down, give you energy, overcome shyness, and avoid feelings of loneliness.  They may you feel bolder and want to take risks you wouldn’t normally take.  They are used to perhaps fit into social situation and get into a party mood and even to celebrate happy occasions.

      Medically, drugs are used to alleviate pain, help you to sleep, suppress anger, combat anxiety, and avoid depression.  They can be used to cope with stress, stimulate your desire for sex, and lose weight.

      Many people report that they began using drugs as a response to peer pressure.  Those around them would use drugs, so to fit in, they began using as well.

      The ways drugs affect us are countless—for everyone. So much so that often it seems that drugs can cure all our ills and help us overcome whatever bothers us. If that’s all there were to it, we might consider each drug to be some kind of wonder drug.

      This is where the thought process gets a little skewed.  People begin to crave the feeling of euphoria that they get when they use drugs and that’s when it becomes a problem.  It can be a vicious cycle.  You feel you can’t live without the feelings that drugs give you and that you just won’t be able to cope with life without those drugs.  That’s what breeds addiction.

      Let’s look at various drugs of choice that people often use and what those specific drugs can do.

      METHAMPHETAMINE

      Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant that is closely related to amphetamine, but has longer lasting and more toxic effects on the central nervous system. It has a high potential for abuse and addiction.

      Methamphetamine use is on the rise around the country.  It has reached epidemic proportions mainly because it is easy to make using common household items.

      Meth is often referred to as speed, chalk, ice, crystal, and glass. 

      The drug increases wakefulness and physical activity and decreases appetite. Chronic, long-term use can lead to psychotic behavior, hallucinations, and stroke.  People who use meth often don’t sleep – sometimes for days on end.  They lose weight quickly because the drug suppresses appetite.

      Meth addicts often have lost some of their teeth, look gaunt, and will have sores on their body from nervous energy they are trying to get rid of.

      National health statistics report that over 12 million Americans have tried methamphetamine with many of them quickly becoming addicted to the drug.

      Methamphetamine is taken orally, intra-nasally (snorting the powder), by needle injection, or by smoking. Abusers may become addicted quickly, needing higher doses and more often.

      Methamphetamine increases the release of very high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which stimulates brain cells, enhancing mood and body movement. Chronic methamphetamine abuse significantly changes how the brain functions.

      Animal research going back more than 30 years shows that high doses of methamphetamine damage neuron cell endings. Dopamine- and serotonin-containing neurons do not die after methamphetamine use, but their nerve endings (terminals) are cut back, and re-growth appears to be limited.

      Human brain imaging studies have shown alterations in the activity of the dopamine system. These alterations are associated with reduced motor speed and impaired verbal learning.

      Recent studies in chronic methamphetamine abusers have also revealed severe structural and functional changes in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory, which may account for many of the emotional and cognitive problems observed in chronic methamphetamine abusers.

      Taking even small amounts of methamphetamine can result in increased respiration, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and hyperthermia. Other effects of methamphetamine abuse may include irritability, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, tremors, convulsions, and cardiovascular collapse and death.

      As we’ve already indicated, long-term effects may include paranoia, aggressiveness, extreme anorexia, memory loss, visual and auditory hallucinations, delusions, and severe dental problems.

      Also, transmission of HIV and hepatitis B and C can be a consequence of methamphetamine abuse. Among abusers who inject the drug, infection with HIV and other infectious diseases is spread mainly through the re-use of contaminated syringes, needles, and other injection equipment by more than one person.

      The intoxicating effects of methamphetamine, however, whether it is injected or taken other ways, can alter judgment and inhibition and lead people to engage in unsafe behaviors. Methamphetamine abuse actually may worsen the progression of HIV and its consequences; studies with methamphetamine abusers who have HIV indicate that the HIV causes greater neuronal injury and cognitive impairment compared with HIV-positive people who do not use drugs.

      Meth is a scary drug with horrible health implications.

      HEROIN

      Heroin is an addictive drug that is processed from morphine and usually appears as a white or brown powder.  Its street names include smack, H, ska, junk, and many others.  Heroin use is on the rise and it has become a serious problem in America.

      Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins, and, particularly in users who inject the drug, infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

      The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria (rush) accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities.

      Following this initial euphoria, the user goes on the nod, an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system.

      Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulitis, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin’s depressing effects on respiration.

      Heroin abuse during pregnancy and its many associated environmental factors (e.g., lack of prenatal care) have been associated with adverse consequences including low birth

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